How To Save A Life
by JuicyMarshmallows
Summary: There was five. One was sold. Another, swapped. A third ran away. One more desired. And the last consisted of mostly hate. There was one corporation. Two sides. Which are you on? And who was who in their little game of Oz?
1. Prologue

Alice sat on her old, stained couch in her dusty, dark lounge room. She could hear the occasional thump coming from a room down the hall. Each squeal or giggle made her heart sink. She picked up the bottle of alcohol – she wasn't even sure if it was Vodka or Tequila any more – and drank straight from it.

She regretted what she was doing. She really, truly did. But Alice didn't want her daughter growing up surrounded by strange men and bottles of Scotch. Taking another mouthful of Vodka (Tequila?), Alice waited for her old friend to show up.

Ah, yes. Her old friend, Giovanni. Odd, kooky Giovanni. He had different views about the world and how people should be. He's always had a tough, harsh view on the world, and they were both pretty comfortable with it. She didn't know why, but however hard she tried to understand the educated things that spewed from his mouth, but she respected it nonetheless. Maybe to impress him, maybe to feel equal with him, or maybe even because she wanted him to respect her, but she certainly did. She wondered if she respected him so she'd feel, in some way, she had a friend.

She snorted. "Pathetic, Ali."

Her daughter came into the room, clutching an old teddy bear with a fraying silk ribbon around its neck tied in a bow. She wore a little pink dress and a pair of white slip-on shoes. Her red-gold hair curling around her face and down to her shoulders. Her blue eyes stood out on her pale skin, but her face was flushed with the cold. Their house was cold. No heating.

"Mummy?" she said quietly.

"What, child?"

She clutched the teddy bear tighter before continuing. "I... I'm hungry."

Alice blinked. Food? She hadn't had much of that herself in the past few days. She stood up a little shakily and made her way over to the kitchen.

Her daughter opened her mouth to say something, but apparently decided against it. Alice arched an eyebrow but didn't question her. She opened the fridge that hummed with a droning tone.

The mother and daughter (and teddy bear) were greeted with cold air. There was nothing in the fridge except an egg, half a celery stick and a mostly empty jar of horse radish.

Her daughter sighed. "It's okay, mummy. I'll be fine." Her small little hands wrapped around her mothers and squeezed, before walking back to her room, her shoulders slumped. The teddy bear had slackened in her arms, too.

_God,_ Alice thought, _I can't even feed my own child. Pathetic. _She picked up her bottle of Vodka – definitely Vodka – and took two, three, possibly seven mouthfuls of it.

Her daughter's voice echoed throughout through the house. "Mummy! Someone's at the door!"

Alice doesn't remember getting up or stumbling her way there, and she scarcely remembered opening the door but the man that stood at the door... Alice swore she'd never, ever forget.

A tall, lean man with dark eyes and short, dark hair stood proud. His face wore regret and something that seemed remotely apologetic.

"Alice, you look awful."

"Giovanni, I feel awful."

"Well, you look it." He chuckled, not unkindly.

Apparently, the pair of them had walked back into the lounge and sat down, as that was the next thing Alice remembered.

"Sweetheart," her voice cracked, "Come here,"

Her daughter came in, teddy bear in hand. "Yes, mummy?"

"This is Giovanni."

"G... Gi... Giovan..."

Giovanni chuckled. "It's nice to meet you, Sweetheart." He held out his hand. She stared at it blankly, not knowing what to do. He smiled. "You shake it. Here."

He took her small hand and shook it gently. She squeezed it, almost looking for comfort. He squeezed back lightly.

"Go and pack up your things, Sweetheart," Alice's voice quivered, "Your clothes, your toys, all of it."

Her daughter nodded. There were a few quiet grunts of effort before Giovanni turned and looked at Alice.

"Are you sure about this? I mean, she's your daughter."

Alice shook her head. "I can't give her anything, Giovanni. Not food, not heat, nothing. You can."

He frowned, his eyebrows knitting together. "Alice, that doesn't stop her from making her own choice."

"She's seven. She won't understand what's happened. Give it a few weeks. Your big flashy place, compared to this dump. She'll prefer it there. She'll prefer you."

"She knows you're her mother."

Alice shook her head again and neither spoke until her daughter came back in with a backpack, tiny suitcase and, of course, the teddy bear. "Where am I going?"

"You're going to stay with Giovanni for a while."

"Why?"

"Because there are some things I need to fix. You'll be safe with Giovanni, don't worry."

"Oh... okay."

"Are you ready to go?"

She nodded.

As they neared the door, Giovanni stopped. "You know, Alice, I'm going to have to know her name."

"Holly." Alice hiccuped.

"Holly has ears," the girl muttered.

Giovanni laughed. "Spunk. I like her."

Kissing her daughter on the head, Alice watched Giovanni and Holly leave.

_Alice never did fix anything. And really, looking back, Alice wasn't sure Holly was ever safe with Giovanni. She decided, however, that if she could do it over again, she would._

~X~

Holly sat on a large, black couch. Everything was so much bigger, cleaner and more expensive than what she was used to. She looked around, gaping slightly. It evened smelled better.

A door opened and out stepped Giovanni and a small boy – her age, seven – was behind him. He had blood red hair that made her blink, as if she was seeing things. She wasn't.

"Holly, this is Silver." Giovanni introduced the boy, who she assumed was his son.

His son smiled warmly, politely.

They became very good friends, after that. Until he started to go somewhere in the house. Into some room she couldn't find.

One night, she sat on her frilly bed and looked out the window. Rain pounded against her window. She was glad she was safe and warm inside the house. Thunder roared, lightning cracked. Holly furrowed her eyebrows and moved to the window. Something out there was moving.

She couldn't see anything, but she could've sworn she'd seen...

No... she couldn't have...

But she was sure of it...

Lightning flashed and lit up the sky, shining down for a second on the earth below.

Yes, she was absolutely positive of it.

A flash of red. A flash of blood red hair.

~X~

One.

Two.

Three.

Jason had taught her numbers last month. She counted as the bullets tore through his skull.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Tears poured down her face. She struggled against the strong hand on her arm. The grip tightened and her bones nearly cracked. Her scream echoed through the grimy room, but it was not answered.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

Blood trickled down her brother's cheek, neck, arm. The man with the gun smiled and raised the weapon once more.

Ten.

Her arm was released and she was running, running to her brother's body, shaking him, trying to wake him.

"JASON. JASON." Her hands were sticky with his blood. "JASON. JA-" The pressure on her arm returned. Her head made contact with the wall and everything went dark.

~X~

He leant over the small girl, shaking her, willing her to wake up. She didn't stir. A huge bruise had already started to form on her forehead and her hands were brown with her brother's dried blood. Wake up. Wake up. She had to wake up. If she didn't wake up, his heart would break knowing that he had watched the man kill both of them. And the world would be dead.

More dead than it already was.

He shook and shook the frail girl. Why was she so small? She was the same age as him, if a few months younger. Her eyes flickered open, met his. Her small fingers brushed against his arm.

"Are you okay?" She didn't answer him. His fingertips grazed the bruise on her head and she flinched.

"Jason," she whimpered. "Help me, Jason. Help."

"Shhh." He glanced towards the stairs, but no one came running. "I'm going to help you." He picked her up and carried her up the stairs. He checked there were no grunts around and soon was sprinting to get outside. The rain soon had them soaked through and the mud was thick on the legs of his jeans. Eventually he ran out of breath and took shelter under a tree. He looked down at the girl in his arms and saw she was crying.

"Shhhh…" he whispered. "You're safe. I won't hurt you." She looked up at him reproachfully. "I'm Silver," he told her.

"Monica." They stayed there for what seemed like hours waiting for the rain to stop. She cried into his shirt and he held her and stroked her hair and for the first time in his life, he had a purpose.

~X~

"But Grandpa, you promised!" Gary whined. The old man looked down at him tiredly.

"I said no such thing. You have to wait until you're ten like everyone else."

"But Grandpa-"

"No buts! Do me a favour and go shut the window. We don't want this place flooding and scaring the Pokémon." Gary sighed in resignation and sulked over to the window. He was about to lock it when he heard a whimper. He peered out, expecting to find a Pidgey, or maybe a Rattata hiding underneath the sill. Instead, he saw a boy and a girl, huddled against each other, wrapped up in a jacket that was too small to have given warmth to even one of them. Gary yelled.

"GRANDPA. GRANDPA."

~X~

**Yay, it's long! Holly wrote the first part. I wrote the others. Hn. It's REALLY long. -claps-**

**Um, yeah. We hope it's good. Holly's the superior writer here, so eh. Over to her.**

_**So basically, yeah, I wrote the first two parts. The alcoholic woman and the first part with the little girl. **_

_**I'm hardly superior, Monica. If at all.**_

_**You know, I'm really surprised - like really, REALLY surprised - that this is long o.O**_

_**I think the little Gary is adorable, I think Monica did a really good job on that. Although, I'm rather proud of my alcoholic mother part :3**_

_**So, yeah, that's about it, guys. Reviews would be absolutely amazing. We'd love that. **_

_**Thank you very much!**_

_**- M and Spiderman, aka Monica and Holly or "JuicyMarshmallows" xx**_


	2. Life in Pallet

It was twelve o'clock when he heard the knock on his bedroom door. It was quiet, but he slept so lightly that even that woke him. He slid out of bed and opened the door. A small, pale brunette stood there, gazing up at him with her blue eyes. She opened her mouth, but he needed no explanation. He got back into bed, closely followed by the girl. She snuggled close to him.

"Bad dreams?"

Monica nodded.

"I'm sorry I woke you…" she murmured. Silver smiled.

"I sleep lightly. A Whismur could wake me. Although that's probably a good thing," he added, "since you're about as loud as a Whismur."

"I didn't want to wake up the whole house."

"You woke me."

"You don't count."

"Do you _want_ me to send you back to your own room?"

Monica met Silver's gaze. "You wouldn't do that."

He sighed.

"No, I wouldn't." His arms encircled her. She leaned into his chest and closed her eyes.

By twelve thirty, they were both asleep.

~X~

Monica's eyes fluttered open. She squeezed them shut again. Silver held her close and her temple was pressed to his heart. If she could've stayed that way forever, she'd be content. But she had work to do. It was hard sliding out of his bed without waking Silver, but she'd had much practice. She changed into her jeans and shirt and made her way to the back door. She opened it and nearly had a heart attack when a ball of brown lunged at her. She fell flat on her back, and it took several seconds for her head to stop aching. An Eevee crouched on her torso, its mouth stretched into a smile far too big for its face. Monica gave a small smile and propped herself up on her elbows.

"Hey, Ella." The Eevee licked her cheek and bounced to the floor. Smiling, Monica grabbed a bag of food and exited the house. She was surprised and pleased to see that Gary was awake as well, feeding a Tauros from his hand, a dozen Pidgey squawking at his feet. Their eyes met and he beckoned her closer.

"You weren't in your bedroom when I checked," he told her.

"I was in Silver's room."

"How did I guess?"

She tilted her head to the side. What did he mean?

"Come on. You two have had a thing since we were seven."

Monica flushed. This again.

"Everyone in the town may be pining after you, but that doesn't mean that love is everywhere…" she murmured.

"Mon, the first time I saw you and Silver, you two were huddled together, wrapped up in the same coat. It was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen at my tender age of seven," he said. Monica snorted and he smiled. She threw her last handful of food to a Hoppip and sat down. Gary lay on his back beside her.

"When's the professor getting back?" she asked.

"'Bout lunchtime."

"Oh…"

They lapsed into silence.

"Silver likes you, you know."

"Please don't start this again…" she said.

"I will. Why else would he let you sleep next to him? He's got a crush on you!"

"Gary, you're great with Pokemon, but don't try to read human emotions."

"I-"

"How are you up so early?"

Gary and Monica looked up. Silver raised an eyebrow. "You have so much energy!"

"You're just lazy," Monica said. Silver raised the other eyebrow. He knelt beside her.

"Do you want to take that back?"

"Nup."

"Fine. Have it your way."

He tickled her.

Gary beamed as she laughed. Only Silver could do that on a regular basis. He and Daisy did it occasionally, yes, but Silver was special.

They lay for a while, the three of them, wrapped up in their own thoughts, their own looks on life.

Gary saw a world full of opportunities, waiting for him to discover what they held.

Silver saw a haven to be saved and protected forever. A sanctuary where all of them belonged.

But Monica saw a dead world. A place where people lived and died in a second and hate ran everything. A world that Jason had wanted to change and as a result, he had died.

And she could never forgive that world.

~X~

_I like muffins. It was late when I wrote this. I like muffins._

_I can't think of what to say in this. I do like muffins, though. My mouth tastes like candy…_


	3. Her Mission

"Sir, are you sure about this?"

Proton was worried. Giovanni always made very odd decisions when it came to the boy, and totally irrational decisions when it came to the girl.

"Of course, Proton. Don't be ridiculous. She's capable of performing such tasks."

"Sir, I understand she's been useful in the past-"

"Proton-"

"And I understand why you want her to carry out this particular project-"

"It's beyond a project, Proton-"

"Sir, she's seventeen."

He met silence, then.

"Proton, what would you have the girl to in this situation, were you in charge?"

"Send out someone else pretending to have been attacked one such as yourself and have her acting as a hostage telling a story of how she tried to run away but got caught. Only have her as a supporting actress in our little show."

"Use her as a backup? As a second opinion?"

"Yes."

"What makes you believe he'd take this other person in?"

"He's done it before."

Proton sighed. "Whatever you wish, Giovanni."

"Good. Call them all in for a meeting in oh, half an hour." He waved his hand around, almost regally. As if he were king. "I'd like to make it formal."

Proton sighed to himself. "Of course, Sir."

~X~

Holly was lying down on her bed, staring at the ceiling. One week. That's all she wanted. One week off.

But, no. 'Course not. As if she'd be granted time off.

Ever since Silver left, she wasn't allowed to do much. If anything, really. She was let out of the house once a year. Literally once a year.

She was so jealous of Proton and the other Executives. They got to go out and see places! To see the world! And there she was, cooped up in a pink, silver and black room in an old building.

Oh, how thrilling. Not.

She sighed and rolled off her bed before going over to the window. Oh, how she longed to see the world. Other towns, other cities, other regions...

_If this were a cliché movie,_ she thought to herself, _this would be the part where I start singing about all the places I want to go but I can't because I'm not allowed. And then, later, Prince Charming would come and save me._ She snorted. _I'd rather rescue myself._

Holly sighed. In her opinion, she was let out at the stupidest times. Big party nights like New Year's Eve. Sure, she liked the random people that came up to her and the pair of them would dance for a few minutes before she'd get a drink, but, then again, she could do that when the younger Grunts had a disco.

The clock chimed behind her and she turned. Seven thirty. Ugh. Breakfast, which usually included stale toast and slightly out-of-date cereal, then the morning meeting.

Adjusting her uniform and pulling her hair up in a crocodile clip (leaving pieces down, including her fringe to frame her face), Holly left her room and headed down the the breakfast hall.

"Morning, Holly."

She looked up and saw a familiar, boyish grin. A bespectacled lad her age with dark purple hair and amber eyes was standing next to her, expecting a chirpy "Morning!" back. She could never understand how Lachlan could be so bright in the morning.

"Hey."

"... You sound happy."

"Don't I, just?"

He laughed. "You should be! We get a good breakfast, today. Some Grunt is getting a promotion."

I grumbled. "Lucky them."

After a quick breakfast (which today, seeing as it was apparently a special occasion, she decided on waffles with whipped cream and Oran berry sauce), all of the Grunts headed into the Auditorium.

Giovanni stepped up to address all the Grunts.

"Good morning, Grunts. I hope you all enjoyed your breakfasts?"

There were claps, nods and pleased remarks from the crowd.

"Wonderful. Now, we all know that every morning you all come here for your daily schedules, and yes, that will be happening today... However. A rumour has been picked up that a certain Grunt is getting a promotion. This is true. This Grunt – who will from now on be known as an Executive – will participate in an extremely important mission."

He walked across the stage, pacing past Proton. "This mission will be, most likely, one of the most important missions we've ever carried out. This will be a real test."

Giovanni looked over the crowd and nodded before continuing. "This mission will be the downfall of that menacing, disloyal, lying runt!"

Grunts cheered, clapped, stomped their feet and yapped in a triumphant manner. No-one actually knew who the "runt" was. Our main problem's name usually changed from insult to insult each day.

I sighed and looked at Lachlan, who was watching all the others. He was always rather sceptical on whether this person or thing that we have this ongoing struggle with was actually one person or a whole organisation.

"Our new Executive who will help us on our path to absolute glory and will be dubbed Neutron, will be... Miss Rosier."

...What?

Applause hit my ears and Lachlan's boyish grin met my eyes. Me? Holy crap. Shit fuckity crap hell. Me? Fuck.

Oh my God. Executive! Me! Oh my God!

"Clear out. Miss Rosier, stay behind, please."

So they all cleared out and she stayed behind.

"This is a very, very important job, Neutron." Proton began, before briefing her on the mission.

"Giovanni will get him in, give him a short, mildly grieving speech before passing you off to our friend. Then, you will, little by little, get information. You will, once or twice a month, relay this information back to us. Understand?"

"Yes, Proton."

He smiled. "We're equals now. Despite you being seventeen and me being, oh, thirty something." He chuckled at his own joke. "Don't be so formal."

She nodded. He nodded back. "That is all. You are dismissed."

Holly smirked at him. "What happened to being equals?"

He laughed. "Touche."

She returned to my room to devise ways for secrets to spill, feeling much freer than she did when she left.

~X~

**I like it. Kinda... weird, but I like it.**

**Comment, please? Thank you xx**

**Love, Holly (Spiderman) :D**

**(apparently Mon and I swapped Blod for Italics? o.O)**


End file.
